One of the primary uses of computers is for information storage and retrieval. Database systems have been developed that allow a computer to store a large amount of information in a way that allows a user to search for specific information in the database, retrieve such specific information and generate reports to enable analysis of the information. For example, an insurance company may have a database that includes all of its policy holders and their current account information, including payment history, premium amount, policy number, policy type, exclusions to coverage, etc. A database system allows the insurance company to retrieve the account information for one or more policy holders among the thousands and perhaps millions of policy holders in its database and generate reports based upon specific user parameters.
Applications have been developed that enable the user to retrieve specific information from the database and generate reports based upon the user requirements. To generate a desired report using the current applications the user typically must browse through multiple user interface screens specifying multiple user parameters in each page. This is a tedious and time consuming process requiring considerable effort from the user especially when the application is slow due to poor bandwidth.
Thus, there is a need for an application that may automatically retrieve information from the database and generate the desired reports.